
Glass 
Book 







JM 



DELIVERED BEFORE 



THE WASHINGTON BENEVOLENT SOCIETY 



OF 

3 



MASSACHUSETTS 



ON THE 



THIRTIETH OAY OF APRIL, 1812; 



BEING THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST INAUGURATION 



PRESIDENT WASHINGTON. 



By WILLIAM SULLIVAN. 



BOSTON : 
PRINTED BY JOHN ELIOT, .TCN 

1312. 



.&* 

AT a meeting of the standing committee of the Washing- 
ton Benevolent Society, on Thursday evening, April 30, 1812. 

Voted, That the thanks of this Committee, in the name of the 
Society, be presented to William Sullivan, Esq.. for his able and 
eloquent address this day delivered before the Society, and to re- 
quest a copy thereof for publication ; and that John Welles, 
Samuel Livermore, and Francis J. Oliver, Esqrs. be a Commit- 
tee to wait on Mr. Sullivan for this purpose. 

A true copy, 

Attest, LEMUEL SHAW, Secretary. 



Gentlemen, 

PLEASE to accept my respectful acknowledgements for 
the act of the Standing Committee of our Society. The copy 
which you do me the honor to request, is submitted to your disposal. 



WILLIAM SULLIVAN" 



Hon. John Welles, Esq. 

Samuel Livermore, Esq. 
Francis J. Oliver, Esq. 



ORATION. 



IF the principles upon which WASHINGTON 
practised as a man, and as a ruler, have been forgotten 
or supplanted, all men who feel attached to the country 
which he saved, and to the institutions which he sup- 
ported, will approve of every honorable effort to bring 
those principles again into action. 

A disposition to inquire into the character and con- 
duct of WASHINGTON, and to appreciate his ser- 
vices and virtues, has been generally awakened. The 
design of erecting monuments to his memory, too long 
delayed, has been revived with zeal. This design is 
worthy of his countrymen. But it will be in vain that 
we fashion bronze and marble to preserve his figure 
for posterity, if we fail to prove by our lives and con^ 
duct, that we have raised more durable monuments in 
our hearts. 

If we fail to cherish and transmit the feelings which 
his acts inspire, the works which we raise in honor and 
gratitude, will change to monuments of reproach to 
our descendants, and to the memory of their fathers. 

Nations, like the individuals who compose them, 
move, in the current of time, subject to changes im- 
perceptible by themselves. They must refer to prin- 



4 

ciples to judge of the correctness of their course. As 
the mariner, who is borne by winds and currents on 
the surface of the deep, looks to the sun in its altitude 
to learn what his course has been, and what it should 
be, so should our nation look to the administration 
of WASHINGTON ; so should individuals look to 
the virtues which irradiated his fame, from manhood 
to the tomb. 

Happy is it, that whatever difference may have aris- 
en among us as members of political society, there is 
one subject in which we all agree, that of paying hon- 
or to the memory of this National Benefactor. 
We are come, then, to commune together on WASH- 
INGTON. We are not come to cherish party ani- 
mosities, or to touch the sensibility of pride of opin- 
ion ; yet to be faithful to ourselves, to our countrv, 
and to posterity. We invoke the sainted spirit of 
WASHINGTON to witness, that his principles and 
his practice are now avowed in the sight of heaven, and 
of the world. 

We remember him with the emotions, which follow 
the poignancy of grief in the most painful bereave- 
ments. We derive a melancholy consolation from 
the fact, that he has existed, and was our own. His 
fame is now confided to the custody of his country- 
men ; it is for us to blend with this fame, our grati- 
tude and interest. 

In these days of adversity and dismay, we recur to 
" the age of WASHINGTON," as we remember, 
most vividly, the morning splendor of the opening year, 
" while Winter loads the earth with snows ;" as the "mar- 
iner is stung the sharpest, with the " thoughts of home," 
while he struggles with the threatening tempest. If 
the splendor of the opening year is to revisit our polit- 
ical hemisphere ; if our struggle with the tempest shall 
avail ; it must, and it will be, because we have the 



manliness to inquire, how and what we have been, 
what we are, and thence to determine what we will be. 

If inspiration should ever be hoped for, it would be 
on such an occasion as this, that every citizen might 
see his way of returning to the policy of WASHING- 
TON ; that every man might be penetrated with the 
truth, that he will be happy, in proportion to his approach 
to the high standard of WASHINGTON'S worth. 

It well becomes us to be thus employed. It was in 
this vicinity that he renewed his military life. The 
possession of this metropolis was his first conquest 
from the enemy. When, long afterwards, he came in 
the character of chief of our nation, knowing us, it 
is hoped, far better than some statesmen who have sur- 
vived him, he said to us, " I rejoice with you my fel- 
" low citizens, in every circumstance that declares 
" your prosperity, and I do so most cordially, because 
" you have well deserved to be happy. Your love of 
" liberty — your respect for the laws — your habits of 
" industry — and your practice of the moral and relig- 
" ious obligations, are the strongest claims to national 
" and individual happiness ; and they will, I trust, be 
" lastingly and firmly established." 

If from the abode which his virtues have ajquired to 
him he can behold the concerns of men ; if the hearts 
of this assembly are open to him, he sees, that we have 
continued to deserve his praise and benedictions. 

It is necessary to have reviewed minutely the histo- 
ry of the times, which preceded and followed the de- 
claration of independence, truly to appreciate the char- 
acter of WASHINGTON. The imbecility of the 
powers of Congress ; the novelty of their situation ; 
the shock which the provincial governments had re- 
ceived in separating from the mother country ; the 
destitution of men, money, and military stores ; the 
division in opinion among the people ; rendered the 
duties of WASHINGTON inexpressibly arduous. 



These circumstances did not discourage him, but 
served to call forth the vigor of his mind ; and to sat- 
isfy the public, that every thing which human ability 
could effect, might be expected from him. 

The warfare which he conducted, cannot be com- 
pared with the difficulties which embarrassed, nor with 
the victories which have given celebrity to the accom- 
plished and powerful generals of other countries. The 
occasion was as singular as the talents which were 
given him to conduct it. More splendid victories 
have been achieved ; but seven eventful years, in 
which no error of judgment, no mistake in the selection 
of agents can be found ; during which every quality 
that varied and trying scenes could need, was prompt- 
ly in use, will never again be recorded in the history 
of men. 

There is one event which future historians, who 
will know so little of WASHINGTON as to com- 
pare him with other men, will examine with won- 
der. When peace and the object of the war had been 
obtained ; when the officers, and the army, had seen 
the end of their labors, but no prospect of reward, and 
were smarting under what they conceived to be the 
ingratitude of their country ; when the near approach 
of poverty opened the way for desperation ; when 
WASHINGTON'S will was the law; when mur- 
murs were current, and swelling to a torrent on which 
he could easily have passed to a throne, he not only 
showed how abhorrent a perversion of his power 
would have been to his own feelings, but repressed 
the more than half-formed projects of his army. He 
conciliated, and encouraged, and induced his unpaid, 
suffering legions, to seek their cheerless homes. He 
then resigned his exalted power to those who gave it, 
and reduced himself to a level, in political rights, with 
the humblest soldier of his ranks. Let the great men of 
the world enter the lists with WASHINGTON in 



this single event of his life. If they shrink from his 
presence, let them follow him at humble distance, and 
mark his future progress in usefulness and glory. Let 
them contemplate the reward of his virtue in die grate- 
ful hearts of his countrymen, and him in that abode, 
where such virtue is had in everlasting remembrance. 

Twenty three years have this day elapsed since it 
was the enviable fortune of Americans to see WASH- 
INGTON at the head of their nation, under a system 
formed by wisdom, reviewed by keen-eyed patriotism, 
and received by a people, who knew and could value 
the blessings of rational freedom. 

Should the records of the age of WASHINGTON 
be preserved, and descend to distant times, his valedic- 
tory scene with his officers at the close of the war ; the 
offerings of gratitude which made his path way from 
Mount Vernon to New York when he assumed the 
duties of President, will be regarded as such fictions 
as are mingled with the origin of all nations. It will 
seem to be fiction, because the history of men will have 
contained nothing like this. 

He had come to the chair of state, on the wings of 
grateful acclamation, not to continue a well organized 
and successful establishment, but. to become the soul 
of a new creation ; to answer the hopes of a people 
who hoped every thing ; to satisfy some who doubt- 
ed every thing ; to bear the suggestions of jealousy ; 
to encounter the malice of the disappointed ; to unde- 
ceive the honestly disapproving ; to meet the fond ex- 
pectations of his brethren in arms, who looked to his 
beneficent haifli for the reward of their patriotism and 
valor. He had come where there was no precedent 
to guide, and where every thing depended, not on 
power, but on public opinion. 

The union of the independent states of America was 
founded in Commerce. It will be seen, that the vir- 
tues and services of WASHINGTON, are no where 



8 

more interesting or valuable to us, than in our com- 
mercial relations. 

His active and prophetic mind had considered the 
immense resources of this continent, and its singular 
capacities to produce, or attract, whatever is precious in 
human society. He had long entertained a hope, that 
a regular and stable government, would evolve the 
destinies of this favored land. 

The constitution of the United States was also found- 
ed in commerce. The power of making "war — 
" peace — treaties — and levying money — with the cor- 
respondent executive and judicial authorities," were 
in practice, by WASHINGTON and ADAMS, ap- 
plied to regulating commerce, to preparation for its 
defence, or exertion to obtain redress for the wrongs 
it had suffered. 

The first fruits of the exercise of its powers was to 
awaken universal industry. The value of property 
which had been so long depressed, was immediately 
raised; public and private credit revived. The re- 
sources of the northern states for ship-building were 
soon apparent. The treasures of the ocean were 
brought to land ; and, while the labors of the fisher- 
man enriched himself and his country, he acquired the 
skill which enabled him to convey, in the ships drawn 
from our own forests, the valuable productions of the 
southern states. The cultivators of the soil found an 
increasing demand on the sea-shore, for whatever they 
could spare of the fruits of their labours ; they, and our 
other citizens, found there also whatever they desired of 
the products of all other climes. Theyjpund there the 
means of knowing all that their fellow man had done, 
or suffered, or enjoyed, upon the varied earth. 

The changes wrought by commerce are not within 
the power of description. They may be examined 
singly ; but, like the virtues of WASHINGTON, they 
cannot, at once, be viewed by the human mind. 



It was by commerce that you were employed, fed 
and enriched at home, while your enterprizing coun- 
trymen carried your new name and your flag, and re- 
spect for your nation, throughout the habitable globe. 
Your numbers rapidly increased, your towns, your in- 
terior country, assumed a new appearance; your knowl- 
edge and science advanced ; your hearts were made 
liberal ; you enjoyed the means of education for your 
children ; the path to honor was equally open to all ; 
your homes were the abode of comfort ; you went 
forth rejoicing ; you felt that WASHINGTON was 
your guardian and protector. It is Commerce that 
has adorned your country with so many temples for the 
worship of the ALMIGHTY, and blessed you with the 
labors and services of the able and the eloquent, who 
speak to you in fervent, heartfelt language, to promote 
the objects for which government is alone valuable, 
and for which only, life should be desired. 

Commerce rewarded you for the favors she had re- 
ceived. She poured into your treasury the abundant 
means of defraying every ex pence of government. 
She gave you the means also of ample protection for 
herself, on the high way of nations. It was the opin- 
ion of WASHINGTON often repeated, in his private 
and public transactions, that Commerce could not 
exist without protection. That the only protection 
she could have, was a sufficient force on that element 
where, until the withering power of Napoleon was felt, 
she waved the flags of all the christian states and em- 
pires of the world. 

Such also was the opinion of Mr. Madison. His 
words in debate in Congress on the motion to establish 
the tonnage duty were — " / consider an acquisition of 
"maritime strength essential to this country. Should 
u we ever be so unfortunate as to be engaged in war, 
" what but this can defend our towns and cities upon the 
B 



10 

" sea coast ? or what but this can enable us to repel an 
" invading enemy ?" 

The impulse which WASHINGTON had given, 
continued through the administration of his successor. 
In his time our commercial interests were attended to 
in the spirit which produced the national compact. 
We saw the foundation of an American Navy. The 
valor and resources of our country were displayed 
against France on the ocean ; and the name of Ameri- 
cans and heroism echoed from the coasts of Africa to 
Europe. 

" Such was the age of WASHINGTON." It has 
passed. You contemplate what has been ; and, as 
with those who walk among the tombs, reflections can- 
not be suppressed. If human society was intended by 
its DIVINE CREATOR to enable us to fortify our- 
selves by union against the fraud and force incident to 
our existence ; to reproduce the delights of life, and 
assuage its sorrows by sympathy ; to fire invention by 
comparison of powers, and advance our well being by 
improvement of talents ; if from this condition come 
enlightened views, benevolent affections, social and do- 
mestic endearments ; if the grateful heart, attracted to 
piety, lifts the chastened mind through revelation to the 
GREAT AUTHOR of human blessings; if it is felt 
that rational liberty is the bond of these blessings, and 
that they only deserve who will defend them; if 
in these are comprised all that heaven can give to earth, 
such blessings we had throughout the age of WASH- 
INGTON. 

Here our theme of gratulation ends. The seeds 
of change were sown long before WASHINGTON 
had retired to the shades of Mount Vernon. As the 
warmth of the sun invigorates the serpent, while it 
clothes the earth with fertility, there came up men, who 
could not endure the serene felicity of our nation, 
nor the splendor of its author's fame. 



11 

By the accession of Mr. Jefferson to the Presidency, 
the fortunes of our nation experienced a deep and de- 
plorable change. Whatever President WASHING- 
TON was accustomed to do, President Jefferson 
sought to avoid. He approached as though he held the 
destinies of America in his hand, and had taken "a 
bond of fate" that unvarying happine s should be 
at his disposal. It was soon found that, through 
the whole extent of executive patronage, uncon- 
ditional submission to the will of Mr. Jefferson 
was the only security, the only acceptable preten- 
sion, for office. This feature of his administration, 
too faithfully copied in Massachusetts, is in- 
describably odious. It excludes from the service of 
the Republic nearly half its members, however useful 
and necessary their talents may be. It makes a govern- 
ment of men and not of laws ; for it invites apostacy ; and 
attracts around the throne, the ambitious, the needy, the 
unprincipled. It is the venomous aliment of party. 
Such exercise of power claims close kindred with des- 
potism ; republicanism can have to it no relation, but 
that of inexpressible abhorrence. 

The Navy, which was the remaining hope, and 
the pride of America, and which was in part the patri- 
otic offering of that zeal, which dictated the Union, 
was hastened into decay, while immense sums were 
expended in a mode of naval armament, which showed 
the difference between experiment and experience, 
and was useful only as facilities to disaster, and sepul- 
chres for the brave, untimely lost. 

If Mr. Jefferson had submitted to the Senate, as it 
was his duty to do, the favorable treaty which his own 
ministers had made with England, and not returned it, 
contrary to the courtesies which are due and practised 
among nations not at war, our difficulties with En- 
gland would have been adjusted, as they were in the 






12 



time of WASHINGTON, and our country shielded 
from the afflictive evils which it has since endured. 

When the war in Europe was renewed, we found 
no proclamation of neutrality ; no measures taken to 
defend our rights upon the ocean. We became the 
despicable convenience of the Belligerents ; and sub- 
ject like all who have no means of defence, to insult 
and to rapine. Even the worm turns against his op- 
pressor ; and like the worm we attempted vengeance 
Was it by fleets ?— Was it by calling into action the re- 
sources of patriotism, and the strength of our nation ? 
No. It was by a measure, which history will blush 
to record ; a measure which stands alone in the policy 
of nations,and which can be resembled only to that mon- 
strous fable of mythology, which represents the father 
oi the gods devouring his own offspring. 

How would the soul of WASHINGTON have 
been affected if he had been permitted to revisit the 
earth, while this desolating evil was wasting the 
strength and the honor, which he had laboured to es 
tablish ! 

A people, who had united for the express purpose 
of asserting their right to the high way of nations ; 
who had waged a just, an awful, and successful war 
with their parent country; who had twice treated with 
that country, and assured its own rights; a people 
who had opposed its strength to that of the "great na- 
tion^ and refused its insolent demand of tribute and 
had resorted to the last appeal, and produced at once 
the object of all legitimate war— honorable peace • 
a people whose little fleet had spread terror amon? 
the nations of the coast of Barbary ; it was such a 
people that saw a wall of adamant raised in an instant 
between them and the ocean ! The implements of in! 
dustry fell from their hands ; the wealth of their enter- 
prize and labor perished before them ; property sunk 



13 

by millions ; the very purposes of society perverted ; 
the rume of an American made odious. 

When sometimes this wall was scaled to prevent 
famishing, or to indulge a spirit of enterprize, which 
deserved a happier fate, justice was called on to use 
her sword, but not her balance, between the govern- 
ment and its suffering citizens. 

The sentiments of disgust which this measure pro- 
duced towards the government, shocked, perhaps fatal- 
ly, that confidence, which WASHINGTON sought 
to inspire. It more fatally shook the principles of 
morality, on which government is founded, by de- 
stroying the means of industry, and abandoning a whole 
people to idleness, or forcing them to devices and haz- 
ards to elude rapacious power, by perverting the course 
of national relationship in peace and war, that course 
which GOD has ordained, and which his creatures 
cannot change. 

* This monster at length removed terrified by univer- 
sal clamor, but " casting a longing, lingering look 
" behind." Its progeny are too hateful to be number- 
ed, or examined ; those only must be called up which 
sadden the present hour. 

While the ships of the United States have been al- 
lowed to carry to England whatever their owners 
thought fit, it has seemed to our rulers a proper policy 
to forbid the importation of many millions of property, 
owned and paid for, by our own citizens in ports of the 
British empire when unwarned of, and unsuspecting 
the interdiction of commerce. The duties on this 
property would exceed in amount the monstrous loan 
which the United States are now attempting to obtain. 

England forbids us to go to or from France, or her 
dependencies, and seizes our property if we do ; yet 
convoys and protects our commerce wherever it is 
found in other destinations. By the wanton and cruel 
exercise of power by some of the commanders of her 



14 

ships of war, some of our countrymen have been im 
pressed, some have been taken by mistake, from simi 
lanty of appearance and sameness of lansuaee and 
hundreds of men have been taken, who are not our coun 
try men, and who, by the law of nations, practise frauds 
upon us, and the belligerents, in pretending to be such 
France forbids us to go to or from any English " 
Portuguese, or Spanish port, and seizes, sink?, or 
burns all ships which she finds so employed. She 
forces our seamen into her privateers to escape the 
cruelties of her prisons. She pours into her treasury 
millions of our hard earnings, as an act retaliating for 
the laws of our own government. She expends tnese 
treasures to increase the pomp of her festivals, or pur- 
sue her relentless war to extirpate liberty and com- 
merce. Meanwhile our own government declares 
and repeats, that her decrees violating our neutral 
rights are repealed. In this state of the' world our na- 
tional councils were convened before the expected 
time, and every eye was directed to them, with anxious 
expectation. 

The hope, that commerce was to resume its wont- 
ed channels ; that our differences with European pow- 
ers had yielded to the conciliation, which the times 
demand ; that our resources were to be retrieved ; our 
property brought home, and our nation restored to its 
once exalted station, was overwhelmed by the sound 
of war, issued from the palace, and caught and echo- 
ed through the walls of the Capitol. In five long, 
anxious months, taxes, and loans, and appointments, an- 
nounced a war of conquest against a neighbouring prov- 
ince, inhabited principally by a people, who hardly 
know or care to what government they belong, and 
who have no more agency or interest in the causes of 
war, than the native Indians who dwell beyond their 
borders. At length the sure precursor of war, it is 
said, has come in the too well known form of embar- 



15 

go ; a war for the honor of the United States. This, at 
a moment when our treasury is exhausted — our credit 
worse than doubtful — without a Navy — without defence 
where alone we are vulnerable — our ships scattered over 
the ocean — more commercial capital at the mercy of the 
intended enemy than remains at home — the wrongs and 
atrocities of France overlooked, or excused — our citi- 
zens beseeching its government not to take measures 
by which they only can suffer, and by which they must 
be ruined ; in this unexampled scene, some believe 
a war inevitable — some fear it — a great proportion think 
it impossible— none but French hirelings wish it. 
The whole is awfully confused, and confounding ; ef- 
fects without causes ; ends without means ; all is mys- 
tery, sophistry, delusion, madness ! 

Americans ! rouse from this dreadful lethargy of 
the soul ; break the ties which hold your reason cap- 
tive ; the spirit of WASHINGTON beckons you 
upward above the mists and jealousies of party, and 
invites you to behold the nations of the earth in the 
soberness of truth. 

Think not of French, or of English, or of the party 
names which disgrace and palsy you ; but look on the 
face of the earth as it is. 

You see in one part of continental Europe, the coun- 
try of a people borne down by oppression, corrupted 
by the licentious and the atheistical, suddenly over- 
turning the foundations of empire, and the distinctions 
which ages had cemented. You see them renouncing 
the SUPREME BEING ; declaring death an eternal 
sleep ; invoking liberty and reason as their deities ; 
in their names breaking the bonds of civil society ; 
annihilating virtue and morality, and even the native 
sense of right and wrong ; shedding torrents of the 
blood of their citizens in the mockery of trials, and in 
wanton massacre. These monstrous deeds engender 
an individual, who seizes on the ruins as his prey, and 



16 



mounts over them, to that un-imagined height, which 
history nature, reason, and all but faith in the nrovi 
dence of GOD, behold with fearful and unsteaVi ze ' 
A force, physical and intellectual, which bends all 
things to its pleasure, having no limit to its will but 
power; no limit to power, but that which is impos- 
sible to man. You see it move with unceasing step 
towards the subjugation of the world. The vo?ce of 
nature sounds not to its ear ; the pulse of pity moves 
not in its heart; conscience, remorse, never withhold 
its arm. It tears from the agonized bosom of parents 
their tender offspring to slaughter, and be slaughter. 
** J '^f b r missl ? n . can appease, no devotion concil- 
iate. I he fate of its ally is more dreadful than that 
of its conquered foe. Beneath its iron sceptre there 
are those who are kind and brave, and generous and 
wise ; but when such a power reigns, all must sub 
nut, as the forest bends to the storm that pours over 
it, or is prostrate never to rise. 

_ In another portion of Europe you behold two na- 
tions, lately allies of this power, and for whom these 
nations expended their blood and their treasure now 
struggling for existence against this terrific foe ' Hu 
manity turns pale at the recital of the cruelties of these 
invaders. " A fire devoureth before them, and behind 
them a fame bumeth ; the land is as the garden of 
" Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilder - 
" ness." In another part, a nation, whose capital has 
once been the trophy of the conqueror, and which 
yielded a bride to his arms, awaits its doom, which 
must be submission, or an expiring struggle. In the 
north of Europe you see the only remaining empire of 
the continent, probably now engaged in hardly doubt- 
ful conflict, against the destroyer of nations. Such is 
continental Europe ; where the sounds of commerce, 
industry, peace, religion, learning, virtue, dwelt! 
1 he presence, or the echo, of rapacious war ha* 



17 

hushed them all. The dismal silence of armed despot- 
ism is interrupted only by acts of daily suffering* 
That communion so dear to the heart is gone forever. 
No man dares whisper his sorrows even to a brother, lest 
he should speak to one who is commissioned to betray. 

On the islands, which border on the western side of 
Europe is found all that remains of European liberty ; 
all the liberty that can be enjoyed in a government 
of kingly power, and hereditary distinctions. The em- 
ployments, and the comforts of social life, which are no 
longer found upon the continent, still exist in them. 
Industry, learning, manufactures, commerce, have 
given this people power by which they are become the 
masters of the ocean. From these islands, immense 
armies go forth against the French, in aid of the in- 
habitants of the peninsula. 

The great body of the people of England are indus- 
trious, virtuous, and religious. Its commercial men 
are the foundation of its strength and power. It is in 
this land, that the religion which is the friend of com- 
merce, and the basis of the laws of nations, numbers its 
most learned and eloquent supporters. Here Shake- 
speare rent the veil which concealed the human heart ; 
— here nature opened to her favoured Newton, the 
volume of her laws ; — here Locke discussed the 
principles of liberty ;— here he disclosed to the human 
mind the secrets of its own being ;---here Pope and 
Milton charmed the listening world. 

From these islands our fathers brought to the land 
which we inhabit, the language which we speak, our 
principles of justice, liberty, and religious freedom. 

This mighty people France attempts to overwhelm 
by every human effort. With England the object is 
not conquest ; but the serious question whether she 
can continue to resist the destroyer of the liberties and 
rights of mankind. In her tremendous warfare, she 
ought so to conduct, as to attract the sympathies and 
good wishes of all, who are friends to the freedom and 
c 



18 

independence of nations. But proud, haughty, confi- 
dent m her strength, she tramples, like France, upon 
neutral rights. She would find, that the sons of 
WASHINGTON, whenever their own government 
abandoned its gross partiality, and unjust discrimina- 
tion between her and France, would cordially unite in 
seeking that redress for wrongs, which their undeviat- 
ing attachment to their beloved country, so imperious- 
ly demands. 

If England falls, there will remain no obstacle but 
America to _ the universal dominion of France ; and 
when America is left alone to contend with this power, 
fraud and force may chain her liberty and independence 
to the conqueror's car. If such is to be our destiny 
happy will be the fate of him, who falls in the contest 
for his country's freedom ;— happy ! that he lives not 
to witness the agonies of those who called him husband 
father. ' 

Return then to our own country, and survey it aloof 
from party feeling. We rejoice that the ocean rolls 
between us, and the scenes we have contemplated. 
We feel that it is not for us to plunge into the endless 
war of Europe ; to us a war without object, and with- 
out hope. We see that while such conflicts have here- 
tofore existed, we have preserved our rights by nego- 
tiation, and by being prepared for war. It is not the 
interest, and therefore not the wish of England to 
make war with us. To France our friendship and our 
enmity are equally unavailing ; her enmity is equally 
unavailing to us, while England is unsubdued. If 
she can league us in her plans for the destruction of 
England, she will have aided her own grand object, 
she will have diminished our strength, and will have 
made us an easier prey, when our turn shall come to 
be numbered among her conquered and wretched 
vassals. 

Unmindful of the blessings which distinguish us 
irom all people who exist, or who have ever existed, 



19 

we wrap ourselves in dangers, as with a garment, and 
start not at the sounds, which may be the forging of 
our chains. We start not at the dreadful fact, that 
with British hostility, and French friendship, we may, 
perftaps, cease to be a free people, or cease to exist. 

The collisions and the misunderstandings between 
this country and England, would not, according to the 
policy of WASHINGTON, especially in the present 
calamitous state of the world, have been considered 
causes of war. Our nation is not satisfied, nor will it 
be easily satisfied, that the evils of war might not be 
averted by fair negotiation. How is it that we are ev- 
er profoundly ignorant of our relations with France, 
while every thing, and any thing, which can excite an 
emotion against England, is the subject of an execu- 
tive message ? Without stopping to inquire as to who 
was the first agressor, the wrongs, injuries, and in- 
sults of France, exceed those of England, an hundred- 
fold. The most insulting injury of all, is the pretend- 
ed repeal of the decrees, which is the present pretext 
for the outcry of war. 

If the war must come, France must be our ally. 
History will record but once' throughout the lapse of 
all her ages, that the only remaining republic, far remov- 
ed from scenes of war, joined with that despot, who 
had struck from being, nations, empires, republics, and 
the rights of man, and helped him to crush the last 
hope of European commerce and liberty. 

Was government made for the men who are in of- 
fice, or for the people by whose suffrage they have 
power ? If for the people, can it be that such war is 
intended ? Have those who would make it, ever re- 
flected whether the people for whom, and in whose 
right they act, will endure such war ? There is a 
prudence of which elected patriots, as well as patriot- 
ism, will take counsel. Let us rather suppose, that 
the cry of war is raised, to reconcile us to the loss of 
commerce. To fasten upon us the continental system 
of Napoleon. When the use of our ocean is taken 



20 

from us, when we are pressed down to poverty and 
insignificance, we may be tauntingly consoled by the 
assurance, that we have escaped a war ! 

It is neither manly or profitable to condemn the 
course of national, or individual conduct, without 
showing that abetter conduct might have been pursued. 
We look to the counsels of WASHINGTON. From 
these we know, that if he could be recalled to power 
he would instantly brush from the nation these dis- 
graceful commercial restrictions. He would assemble 
around him the enlightened and the patriotic, however 
distinguished by political opinion. He would recall 
the fleeting shade of commerce. He would repair 
the nation's means of defence on the shore, and on the 
deep. He would dispel the jealousies and delusions 
which have been so industriously scattered among his 
countrymen. When he had repaired the waste of years 
in the national resources, morality, and spirit, he would 
seek, with the olive branch in one hand, and the sword 
in the other, that his country should be restored, by 
treaty, to its former elevation. If these efforts failed, 
you would see that the war he waged would not be 
without object ; would not be without success ; would 
not be without honor and glory to his beloved country. 

You cannot recall WASHINGTON ; but his coun- 
sels remain with you. You can practise his precepts ; 
you can use your constant and honorable exertions, 
that his counsels shall again take possession of the 
hearts of your countrymen ; that your affairs shall 
be administered by such men as he called his friends ; 
not such as shunned his penetrating eye, and never 
used his name with commendation, while he was a 
ministering angel to this people. 

STRONG was among the friends, who were dear 
to WASHINGTON. Welcome him again to your 
confidence. Silencing his fondest inclinations, like 
WASHINGTON, he comes forth from retirement, 
whenever his country demands his servic es. 



21 

Gentlemen of this Society, 

The regret which you entertain 
for the absence of one of your officers,* is feelingly 
reciprocated by him. He is soothed with the 
consciousness of being engaged in the performance 
of his duty. You are consoled by the fact, that his 
duty is performed with that constancy, firmness, and 
ability, which makes his fellowship an honor among 
those who claim political kindred with WASHING- 
TON. — You have solemnly pledged yourselves to 
each other, and to the world, that you will follow the po- 
litical tenets oi the. FATHER OF YOUR COUNTRY. He 
has conjured you to maintain inviolate the constitu- 
tion and the union of these states; upon these he 
founds your hopes of happiness. But you are ever to re- 
member, that the principle upon which the union of the 
states is founded, is commerce ; without which you 
" cannot, and do not wish to exist. 1 ' Inseparably con- 
nected with commerce, is an efficient naval protection. 
This is guaranteed to you by the terms, and the spirit 
of your national contract. WASHINGTON warns 
you of the dangers of usurpation. He inculcates the 
necessity of guarding and of exercising your political 
rights according to the dictates of conscience. 

Knowledge and virtue are the pillars of the repub- 
lic. Your purpose is to disseminate truth among your- 
selves ; and by communing together, to obtain that infor- 
mation, that practice of moral and political duty, which 
will save your republic for your grateful descendants. 

Fear not that your fellow citizens are chargeable 
with a wish to dismember the union, and form alliance 
with foreign powers. If you had no pledge but that 
of interest, you would have enough to repel the sel- 
fish and wicked calumnies, with which the air is freight- 
ed ! When you add to this the feelings of honor, of 
patriotism, of attachment to their families ; their con- 
stant devotion to the common welfare, assured by years 
of public labors, you will not the sooner listen to these 

* The Hon. Josiah Q,uincy, one of the Vice Presidents. 



22 

calumnies, because the dignity of 'high office has been 
■ abused to give them force. 

But yem may and you ought, to fear those men who 
exult in the deeds of revolutionary France, and enirtllv 
in the victories of despotic France, whether gained in 
equal and just war, or won from the g.a lam "Portuguese 
and Spaniard, who resist on their own sou for liberty" 
for life, for their wives, their children, for the sepul- 
chres of their fathers. 

You may, and you ought, to fear that temper, which 
labors, without ceasing, to cast the odium of foreign in- 
fluence on your worthiest fellow citizens, who strive 
to save you from war, from the destruction of com- 
7?ierct% and from the rapine of those, who seem to think 
that government and the people were made for them. 

You are pledged to remember and to imitate the 
virtues of WASHINGTON. 

His industry v/as such that time never came and 
found him unprepared. He was benevolent ; his life 
was a continued act of beneficence. He was prudent ; 
for he had never to undo or recall his acts or words'. 
He was brave ; for he never engaged in conflict which 
his reason and conscience did not approve. He was 
just ; for he held it the highest honor of his life to be 
deemed an honest man. He was a christian. Through- 
out his life he humbly reposed himself on the provi- 
dence of his Creator, and was supported, in all his 
efforts, by his hopes in his Redeemer. Among his 
Inst words was the exulting expression, "/ am not 
afraid to die.^ 

Young Members of this Society: You will indulge 
the suggestions of affectionate wishes for your useful- 
ness, and welfare. With honest hearts, and generous 
feelings, rising to the scenes of active life, it is for you 
to study, and to cherish the character of WASHING- 
TON. You are not yet the victims of prejudice, nor 
bound in the shackles of party. It is the country in 
which you have drawn your first breath, which claims 
your zealous attachment to its republican institutions ; 



1 



and your veneration for those things, which age and 
wisdom have approved. Live, as you believe 
WASHINGTON would approve. In a few 
rapid years you will become heads of families. Be, 
what you would wish your sons to be. The burthen 
of supporting your country is devolving on you. You 
will not be faithless to yourselves, nor disappoint the 
fond hopes which centre in you. 

Mothers, who honour us with your presence ;.... 
you have a precious interest in this day's solemnities. 
WASHINGTON was emphatically your friend. He 
owed to his mother his education ; perhaps to her the 
principles of action, which made him useful and illus- 
trious. To him you are indebted, that the aspect of 
your ho?nes has been so welcome, and so cheering. 
It was h e who gave your husbands, and your sons, the 
glorious example of being valuable to their nation,.... 
and taught them to be so worthily dear to you. 

You have a near and important relation to this So- 
ciety. It is for you to stamp the unfolding minds of 
your offspring, with impressions of virtue, of honor, 
of piety. It is for you to found the fabric of their 
worth, and enjoy, in their felicity, an invaluable reward 
for all your solicitudes. 

Friends of WASHINGTON !— We cannot suffi- 
ciently value that principle of our national and state 
constitutions, by which the people periodically deter- 
mine by whom they will be ruled. Power, in most 
other countries, is gained, lost, or transferred by vio- 
lence, tumult and crime. We are blessed with an ea- 
sy and certain remedy for the abuse of power, in the 
exercise of the right of suffrage. 

It cannot be imagined, that our fellow citizens have 
other views in the selection of the objects of their con- 
fidence, than the preservation of our constitutions, and 
of the precious rights of civil liberty. 

But this selection, to effect their object, must be gov- 
erned by principle, and must be made with intelligence. 









24 



The principle to which all must refer, is WASH- 
INGTON'S life and practice ;— intelligence may be 
derived in associations formed for the purpose of faith- 
ful and honest inquiry ; and of fair comparison "between 
WASHINGTON and other statesmen. 

All that conforms to WASHINGTON'S standard 
of truth must be right, and all that this standard rejects, 
must be wrong. 

The veneration which is this day manifested for his 
services, and virtues, forbids us to despair of our be- 
loved country.-— Doubt not that your example will be 
followed. The spirit of sober inquiry is gone forth. 
There is a redeeming power in the good 

SENSE OF THE PEOPLE, by which Our REPUBLIC 

will be preserved and enjoved, according to the hopes 
and the prophesy of WASHINGTON. 

NOTES. 

IMPRESSED SEAMEN. 

THE impressment of our seamen, is a subject, which does, and ought to 
excite, the highest indignation. Nothing can touch the sensibility of an A- 
merican more keenly, than that his fellow citizen should be held in captivity, 
on board a war-ship of a foreign power, when his own nation is not at war. 

But the extent of this evil has been greatly exaggerated, for mere party pur- 
poses, by men who in fact care nothing for the seamen, or ships, of the north- 
ern states. 

There are three classes of men, who are called " impressed seamen." First, 
those who have obtained fraudulent protections, and who are neither native, or 
naturalized citizens. Secondly-naturalized citizens. Thirdly-native Americans. 

The people of the UnitedStates will not go to war for the % first class. They 
will not go to war for the second class. They did not ask, nor wish, these 
foreigners to come here, and be naturalized. Notwithstanding their natural- 
ization, the respective governments, within whose allegiance these men were 
born, have a legal right to their services, in time of war ; — as the United States, 
would have to Hie services of their native citizens, notwithstanding an oath of 
allegiance to a foreign power. 

The number of impressed, native Americans is few. How many men in 
this State, or in the United States, can name an American citizen, who is 
known, or supposed, to be held in captivity on board a British ship of war ? — 
Of these few, how many have, with them, that evidence of American citizen- 
ship, which has always been respected by every Government in Europe, ex- 
cept that of France ? 

THE POWER OF FRANCE. 

The magnitude of French power, and its terrific character, seem to be little 
understood, or if understood, too little regarded in America. 

At the commencement of the French revolution, the population subject to 
French power, was about twenty-eight millions. In addition to this number, 
France has now, subjected to her control, seventy-five millions of people, who 
composed within the last twenty years, nearly two hundred empires, states, re- 
publics, and sovereignties ! 

With such a power, what man who is not French in his heart, or in his for- 
tunes, can endure alliauce ! 



<8 



4/ 



